One of Boris Johnson’s strengths is that he doesn’t believe in anything

The prime minister is accused by both sides in the Great Unlockdown Debate of being pushed around by the last person he spoke to. The awkward squad on the Conservative backbenches accuse him of being in hock to the scientists and subservient to a fearful public, instead of leading us out of captivity. The Labour Party, on the other hand, is waiting to accuse him of easing up too soon, with some of the fringe elements claiming that he is driven by the interests of Tory party donors keen to open up the economy again. No one knows what Boris Johnson really thinks.

It is the same with Keir Starmer. Floating voters in a focus group convened for Times Radio last week complained: “He doesn’t want to upset anybody”; “He’s not pushed any of my buttons”; he’s “Mr Man on the Fence”. He takes a different view from Jeremy Corbyn on antisemitism and cuts to the armed forces, but beyond that, does he really agree with Corbynite policies or was that just a way of getting elected leader? No one knows what he really thinks either.

This, however, is not a weakness in a politician. The charge of cowardly pragmatism has been levelled at prime ministers before Margaret Thatcher and since: she was the exception; the rest are the rule, at least in their early years as leaders. Tony Blair was accused of it; as was David Cameron. It was a source of strength. Blair dominated politics for longer than seemed possible by maintaining a broad consensus and Cameron made a coalition government work partly by being ready to U-turn on any policy at the first whiff of an MPs’ rebellion.

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They all came to grief as prime ministers because of their beliefs rather than the lack of them. Thatcher refused to compromise on the poll tax; Blair sincerely believed it was in Britain’s interest to stand by the US in Iraq; and Cameron believed in EU membership. If he had walked away from the negotiating table and led the referendum campaign to leave the EU, he might still be prime minister now.

So it should be a cause for alarm that Johnson doesn’t believe in anything only if we are alarmed at the prospect of his being prime minister for many years to come. I was struck by the testimony of Dominic Cummings, who knows him well and who told a select committee this month about the “deal” that he had agreed with Johnson: “The prime minister came to speak to me the Sunday before he became prime minister and said would I come to Downing Street to try to help sort out the huge Brexit nightmare. I said: ‘Yes, if, first, you are deadly serious about getting Brexit done and avoiding a second referendum; secondly, double the science budget; thirdly, create some Advanced Research Projects Agency-like entity; and, fourthly, support me in trying to change how Whitehall works and the Cabinet Office works, because it is a disaster zone.’ And he said: ‘Deal.’”

How extraordinary for Cummings to think that Johnson might not be “deadly serious” about avoiding a second EU referendum. Perhaps the Final Say campaign was on to something after all.

But that is why Johnson is such a formidable and underestimated politician. And it is why Starmer might be quite a formidable and underestimated threat to him.

Yours,

John Rentoul

Chief political commentator